Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 19, 2011 Page: 6 of 32
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Page 6
Jewish Herald-Voice
May 19, 2011
Up Close
AMOS BENGERSHOM / GPO
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama met in
the Oval Office, July 6, 2010.
Looming From Page 2
a similar note in how the Obama
administration would deal with
terrorists, referring to the bin Laden
operation.
“Our action sent a powerful
message for America’s friends and
adversaries: We do what we say we
will do,” he said in a May 12 address
to the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy “That is an important
message that resonates across our
other strategic interests.”
The reference to friends,
adversaries and “other strategic
interests,” as well as the venue -
the premier pro-Israel think tank in
Washington and a crowd peppered
with potential campaign donors -
made Donilon’s subtext clear: The
Obama administration and Israel are
on the same page when it comes to
confronting terrorism.
That’s a message likely to be
reinforced next week at the AIPAC
parley.
The message from the Obama
administration was underscored
as well by how Donilon made what
had been the administration’s mantra
until now - the critical necessity of
achieving a two-state solution -
almost an afterthought in a speech
that otherwise was dedicated to
confronting terrorism and Iran.
That reference included a dig at the
Palestinians for pursuing international
recognition through the United
Nations.
“An enduring two-state solution
can only be achieved through
negotiations,” Donilon said. “There are
no shortcuts.”
Mitchell’s resignation the next day
underscored the administration’s turn
away from intensive peacemaking for
now.
Joel Rubin, the deputy director of
the National Security Network think
tank and a former foreign policy
staffer for top Democrats, said Mitchell
may have been disenchanted by the
Hamas-Fatah agreement as well as the
determination in Congress to cut off
PA funding in light of the pact.
“It’s quite possible he looked at the
unity government dynamic and looked
at the domestic political environment
here and thought it’s very difficult to
craft a way forward on that effectively,”
Rubin said.
White House officials have said
that Obama will deliver a speech
linking his determination to confront
terrorism with encouragement for
nascent democracies in the Arab
world.
Seizing the initiative on terrorism
now could allow Obama to press
forward later with a bold peace
initiative.
Donilon hinted at such a linkage in
his speech to the Washington Institute,
which shares board members with
AIPAC.
“As we have learned in the Middle
East, the status quo is never static,”
he said. “There are demographic and
technological clocks that keep ticking.
There is a new generation of leaders
who will emerge in the region as a
result of the changes that are now
taking place. And, it is in everyone’s
interest that they see that peace is
possible.”
Steve Rosen, the director of the
Middle East Forum’s Washington
Project and a former foreign policy
director for AIPAC, said international
pressure to advance peace is likely to
emerge around August, on the eve of
the UN General Assembly.
If the Palestinians, as expected,
have the votes in support of statehood
not only in the General Assembly
but in the UN Security Council, that
would necessitate a U.S. veto. Such
a turn of events would discomfit an
Obama administration that has made
its dedication to arriving at a two-state
solution a key plank of its outreach to
Europe and the Arab world.
“They pretty much have to veto,
but it’s not going to be easy for them,”
said Rosen, who blamed the Obama
administration for cornering itself
with its past insistence on an extended
settlement freeze that Netanyahu did
not deliver.
One way to relieve the international
pressure would be for the Obama
administration at around August
to again push for talks with the
Palestinians, Rubin said.
“That’s a situation where there has
to be a triage,” he said, referring to the
looming U.N. recognition.
Netanyahu, with the backing
of much of the U.S. Congress, has
counted out negotiations as long as
Hamas is involved with the Palestinian
Authority.
What, exactly, Netanyahu is
planning - if anything - is not clear,
Rosen said.
“I tried to find out where the
prime minister was going,” he said.
“I was told repeatedly by several
aides that they did not know.” □
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Samuels, Jeanne F. Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 103, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 19, 2011, newspaper, May 19, 2011; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth544156/m1/6/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .